


The Peace is Broken

by clubtropicana



Category: Left 4 Dead (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, M/M, did i cry while writing this? Oh you Bet, dont look at me im fucking sad, mourning nick, nick cries for once.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 10:56:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16116959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clubtropicana/pseuds/clubtropicana
Summary: Losing someone is always hard, losing someone you love, during a humanitarian crisis, is even harder.Nick loses something dear to him, even if he wont admit how truly dear this "thing" is to him.





	The Peace is Broken

**Author's Note:**

> look ... this is my first fic ive written in like at least. 3 years so. dont expect it to be thebest. im a dumbass bitch. also some things might be ooc im kind of dumb so

It had basically become routine to Nick at this point, watching his back, while watching 3 other peoples backs. Among those “3 other people” was his … lover? Ellis certainly was so, as much as Nick wanted to deny it. Nick loved Ellis, unconditionally, and thankfully, they were almost there, almost to the helicopter, ready to be swept off their feet by the military, ready to go back to not being surrounded by slobbering, wet, bloody “people”, if you could even call them that anymore. It was so close, relief, medicine, and FINALLY, rest. 

“Hey! You paying attention?!” Nick was snapped out of his thoughts by Rochelle’s booming voice in his ear, he must have gotten carried away.

“Yeah yeah, I jus-” Nick stopped to shove away an infected. “I just was thinkin’, its non’a your business.” He grumbled, shooting the said infected straight between the eyes.

They were walking at a hurried pace, anxious to get into that helicopter and finally get away. Ellis let out a small chuckle, patting Nick on the back. “Aww... Nick, why dont’cha share with tha’ class, huh? What’cha thinkin’ ‘bout?” 

Nick rolled his eyes, groaning. “Puppies and rainbows, kid. Puppies and rainbows …” Nick shot back at Ellis, patting him on the head.

Ellis took his hand off the other mans back, smiling. “Aw com’ on Nick, no need to be such a party-pooper.”

Walking around a very extreme pot-hole in the crumbling bridge, Nick nodded, “Oh yeah, cause this is such a party.”

Ellis giggled lightly, leaning over to give Nick a light kiss on the cheek. Nick grasped his hands around his throat, acting like he was choking. "A - Ah! Ellis cooties!" He coughed, playfully scratching his neck.

The whole group laughed at Nicks dramatic reaction. "I do nawt have cooties! Ro' is tha one wit' cooties!" Ellis laughed, gesturing to Rochelle.

Rochelle whipped her head around to Ellis, looking offended. "Boy you watch your mouth!" She giggled, shaking her head.

“‘Ay, shush for a minute.” Coach said, stopping in his tracks, keeping his voice low.

The laughter died as they all stopped, focused on listening on what Coach was trying to hear. Silence … Silence … Grumble … Belch. The clear sounds of a bloated, bubbling infected, known lovingly as the “Boomer”. The group sprung into defensive mode, not exactly in the mood to get thrown up on. Ellis quickly put his back to Nicks, scanning the bridge, listening closely for just … another … gurgle …

SPLASH.

“Ellis! Oh lord …” Rochelle yelped.

Ellis was coated, soaked, writhing in awful-smelling bile that contained god-knows-what. He quickly tried to wipe the goop away from his eyes using his forearm, but simply just rubbed more onto his already coated face. It was in his ears, blocking out most of the sound, but he swore he could hear Nick shout, “SMOKER!”

Ellis felt a hand on his back, no doubt it was Coach, guiding him to a safer location, if that was even possible. He shook his arms, desperate to get any of the nasty goo off of his body. He had lost track of his shotgun at this point, it must have slipped out of his hands. All he could hear was awfully-muffled gunshots, among the screams and groans of multiple- scratch that- many, infected. They poured seemingly out of nowhere, from under trucks, behind cars, among other places unknown. They ran towards the survivors, screaming and clawing, desperate to get at the bile-covered boy.

Coach was kicking, pushing, shooting all of the infected he possibly could, protecting the smaller man behind him. "Shit! Where's that goddamn Smoker gone?!" Coach was frantically multitasking, watching for the elusive smoker. Next thing he knew, Rochelle was no longer by his side.

"Ro'! Ro- Where are you a-" Coach's eyes were darting around the crowd of infected, desperately looking for the lady.

And there she was, being choked, grabbed, dragged away by that same smoker. Coach yelped, and quickly bolted after her. The smoker was perched on top of a truck that had been perfectly parallel to Rochelle's exact location. Coach fired so many bullets, he was sure he was going to run out of ammo by shooting this one infected. One final shot directly to the smokers head did the trick. The smoker let out a ear-breaking scream and a loud puff of old, stale, cigarette smoke, that had no doubt been rotting in the infected's body for god-knows-how long.

"Coach! Coach! Are you se- seriously leaving us- ... here?!" Nick yelled after Coach, but Coach was much too far away at this point. Nick was desperately fighting off the last of the infected that were scrabbling to get to Ellis.

Despite his best efforts, a few straggling infected had managed to slip past him and wrestle with Ellis. Unarmed and barely able to see, Ellis fought off the few infected the best he could, before one of the infected turned his attention to Nick, and slipped its rotting, dirty, bloody hands around Nicks shoulder and began to try and claw through the thick fabric of Nicks suit. "Ah, shit! Go- God damn asshat!" Nick elbowed the infected straight in the ribs, of course, not that it hurt the infected, but simply staggered it. 

Nick span around and shot the infected straight in the head, sending it tumbling off the near-by edge of the crumbling bridge. "Ellis!" Nick shouted.

Ellis was still wrestling with the last of the infected, but unknown to him, he was quickly being shoved backwards into a once-pothole, now a gaping hole in the bridge, rebar sticking left and right out of the broken concrete. "Ellis! Ellis look ou-" Nick shouted, lunging towards the younger man.

Ellis lost his footing, and slid between the large opening in the concrete, taking the fighting infected down with him, and sending it flying down into the shallow water below.  
Grabbing loosely onto the sturdy rebar, Ellis yelped loudly and Nick grabbed his wrists, desperate to hold onto his beloved country boy. "God damnit - Ellis, hold on! I can pull you - up!" Nick cried inbetween breaths, struggling to hold onto Ellis' bile-coated wrists.

"Nick! Oh good gawd, this is it for me ain't it!" Ellis yelled, kicking his legs in the open air beneath him.

"No god-dammit, pull yourself together Ellis, you can hold on! Dammit, dammit ... dammit!" Nick felt tears begin to well up in his eyes, much to his dismay. Nick could feel an infected clawing at his back, but he didn't care. He valued Ellis' life over his from the day he met him.

He was grabbing, pulling on Ellis' wrists as hard as he could. Ellis' wrists were so-so slippery, Nick could not hold on for much longer, and Ellis knew this. "Nick - I - cant hold on any longer! It's too - Slippery!" Ellis cried, feeling Nick's grip slip even more.

Time felt like it was going by in slo-mo for Nick. Was this really it? The end of the line? Ellis had so many years ahead of him. Only 23, so young. Tears were streaming down Nick's face, everything hurt. The claws grating against his back, the pain in his arms, desperately trying to hold his love for one last time.

Taking a deep breath, Ellis flashed a broken smile to Nick.  
Looking deeply into his eyes one last time, Ellis slipped out of Nicks grip.

"NO - ! God dammit !" Nick screamed at the top of his lungs, grabbing the air where Ellis once was.

Nick watched as Ellis fell through the air, screaming, crying for his mother. Until, /THUMP/. Ellis hit the shallow water below with a loud thud, and then? Nothing, no movement, no screams, no tears. Nick half expected Ellis to get up and say something like, "Man that wus awesome! I got'sta do that again!", but for the first time in Nicks life, the silence was deafening.

"No .. - NO!" Nick screamed, slamming his fists onto the concrete road. He was full on sobbing at this point, unable to fathom what was happening in this moment. He was shaking, grabbing the ground so hard he thought all the bones in his hands were going to bust. Rochelle and Coach managed to fight their way through the rest of the infected that were left over.

"What's going on suit, where the hell is Ellis?!" Rochelle cried out, running in Nicks direction. Nick raised his tear-soaked face to Rochelle, Coach was right behind her, with an extremely worried and scared look on his face. The scared-est Nick had ever seen Coach look.

The slick-haired man growled angrily, and slammed his fists on the cold ground, darting his eyes down to the body of the once lively, once joyous, simple Georgia boy, who now laid dead, floating on the shallow water of a dirty, dried up river. Nick let out a loud sob, putting his hands on his head. "Oh my ... good god in heaven -" Coach whispered, looking over the hole that Ellis once hung, putting his hand over his forehead, immediately grabbing Rochelle and holding her to his chest. "Don't look down there Babygirl, you don't need to see that."

Rochelle looked around frantically, unsure of what was happening. "Where is Ellis? Coach whats going on?" 

Coach shook his head in disbelief, "Nick, we've gotta go son. We gotta get to that helicopter."

Nick shot up, standing on wobbly knees, "What?! And just leave him there to rot?! You got a heart old man?!" Nick yelled, getting up into Coach's face.

"Hes dead. Nick, he is dead." Coach said, bluntly, unfazed by Nicks close presence.

"What?! E - Ellis, hes .. -" Rochelle yelped, shoving away from Coach, looking down into the empty hole that lead down to the shallow water, where Ellis' lifeless body lay limp. Rochelle gasped, stepping backwards, quickly beginning to sob, falling back into Coaches arms.

"Hes ... Hes in a better place sweetheart." Coach whispered down to Rochelle, before turning back to Nick and glaring. "There is nothing we can do. If we go back for hi- .. his body now, we will miss the chopper." He paused. "Don't you think its what Ellis would have wanted? He always put us first."

Nick scoffed angrily. "Ha - Yeah. And just let him get eaten by those - things! They did this! We're just gonna let the flu win?! God-dammit!"

Coach pulled a sobbing Rochelle closer to him, holding her and rubbing her back gently. "We have. to go." Coach said roughly.

Nick gave in, giving one last look down to Ellis, wiping his eyes free of any remaining tears. "God dammit kid, - I'd give anything to have you back." Nick whispered to himself, almost as if Ellis could hear him.

Turning on his heel, Nick practically stomped his way past Coach, picking up Ellis' shotgun that he had previously dropped. As his fingers grazed the concrete, Nick realized that there was something else beside the discarded gun.

Ellis' hat was crumpled, sitting alone on the cold concrete a few feet away. Clearly stepped on, covered in bile and blood. Nick approached the hat, before picking it up and storming off in the direction of the helicopter. He straightened out the hat in his hands, if he had tears left to cry, he would, but for now, he was feeling a pain in his chest he could not explain. He was a strong man, but something about the delicate innocence of Ellis had him head over heels, sadly as Nick knows, God is cruel.

Rochelle and Coach followed slowly behind Nick, completely silent, unsure of what to do with their own bodies. Nick suddenly stopped, and turned on his heel. Facing Rochelle, he gave Ellis' hat a pat, just like he used to do, when it was on Ellis' head. He slipped the hat over Rochelle's head and turned, and began walking again. Rochelle lightly smiled and felt the bill of the cap between her fingers.

Nick always lived by one sentence, "no sense in dwelling on the past."


End file.
